I am in shock with this win because never in my So You Think You Can Dance-watching history, have I actually LOVED and rooted for, the dancer that actually ends up taking the title. Never.

Season 1? Nick Lazz won. While I love Nick now, I will honestly say that I haven’t really fully seen Season 1 (whoops..) but the clips I had seen, I felt that Blake McGrath should have won for sure. Season 2? OBVIOUSLY TRAVIS WALL SHOULD HAVE WON. Season 3? Again, obvious. Danny Tidwell trumps Sabra (I don’t even know her last name? She was that forgettable…) in pretty much every aspect, and should have won, but did not. And Season 4? Do. Not. Get. Me. Started. About how set up Joshua Allen’s win was… I’m sorry if that upsets people. But Nigel pimping and over-praising Josh throughout the entire season, shoving him down my throat, and oh-so-coincidentally predicting an “untrained” hip-hop dancer would win that season, makes me want to vomit. (Mark should have won, by the way. And I have found that for most people I’ve spoken with and forums I’ve checked out, Mark is the post-Season 4 favourite dancer by far).

So anyways, that brings us back to the point that I was trying to make… I have never loved a SYTYCD winner before until now. Until Jeanine Mason took the title last night. I think this is the most well-deserved and rightful win in So You Think You Can Dance history. Of course there will always be people who don’t agree. Who say that Brandon is technically stronger or what have you, but to them I say you cannot deny Jeanine’s talent. You cannot deny her technique, you cannot deny her charisma, her personality, and her energy. Her performances have always been stellar and she has always put so much into each routine on that SYTYCD stage. Even if a partner was weaker, she was still strong. She still shone. I love Brandon as well and I think had he won, he would have deserved it too and I would have ben happy for him. Honestly, I liked the entire Top 4 this season (which is also another rare occurrence). But there is no denying that Jeanine Mason deserved to win this season and I could not be more thrilled that she did.

Looking back, I find that I really enjoyed watching this season and I’m especially glad it introduced me to Kuponohi’ipoi Aweau, Jason Glover, and Jeanine Mason.

Now let’s watch Jeanine’s finale solo that bled brilliance:

And now I will end this with a clip of the intense and incredible encore performance of Kayla Radomski and Kupono Aweau’s Addiction piece, choreographed by Mia Michaels. This (along with Travis Wall’s Jason & Jeanine piece) was the performance I was waiting to re-watch last night. One of the absolute best and most memorable routines of Season 5 for me.. Better, if possible, the second time around.

Thus concludes Season 5! Crazy thing is that So You Think You Can Dance Canada Season 2 kicks off this Tuesday… and then So You Think You Can Dance America starts back up next month with Season 6, while Season 5 starts touring next month too! That’s a LOT of SYTYCD… Maybe more than I can handle, even though I love this show to death.

Still, I’m looking forward to continued blogging about the show (both Canada and U.S. versions), along with seeing if I can squeeze in some more legitimate interviews with show dancers, judges, and choreographers for SYTYCDISM! 😉

Farewell Season 5! It’s been a fun few months!

Also, what do you think? Jeanine’s win, well-deserved? Should Brandon have taken the title? Were you surprised Kayla was 4th place instead of 3rd place even after all of the negative comments the judges gave to Evan on Wednesday night? Don’t you just love Adam Shankman as a judge? I do! And do you think there is too much SYTYCD going to be taking place in the next little while?! Will you get sick of it or can there never be enough SYTYCD?

Side note: I think it’s lame that Jeanine only gets to keep the SYTYCD title for a couple months since Season 5/6 is back-to-back this year..

Jeanine is made of win in every aspect imaginable. I have a girl crush on her, oh yeah. And the fact that she’s not only adorable and talented, but also f*cking hilarious, smart and witty makes me even more proud that she took the title this year.

I agree with everything you said. You can’t deny her talent, her charisma. She killed every routine that they threw at her, she outshines all her partners – she peaked at the right time. I’m glad people started to notice her, because the judges always left her in the shadows, overpraising her partners. It just upsets me to see people’s immature behavior when their favorite didn’t win, so they go on bashing the winner uncontrollably. Trust me, a few of the previous winners of SYTYCD definitely were not my favorite.. but never was there any hate or immaturity. But I guess that life. Poor bb girl doesn’t have longer time to take the crown compared to the other winners. GO J9 😀

I always watch SYTYCD for the dancing and don’t necessarily care who wins, of course I want dancers I love to stay as long as possible. But don’t get me wrong, I don’t know why but jeanine never got to me. She is talented and all but I never felt her. I was rooting for brandon and kayla. I simply hated brandon at the start of the season but he really proved he is an amazing dancer. kayla on the other hand didn’t have that quintessential “personality” but man she could definitely dance and I would have been happy he she or barndon would have won this. Anyways looking forward to season 6. Frankly after season 4, I wouldn’t say season 5 was amazing.

I agree with a lot of this post. A lot of people don’t like this season in comparison with other seasons but I know this one is my favorite because my favorite finally won.

Jeanine was just so gracious and awe-inspiring during the entire journey (I loved her from Top 20 week), that the win at the end was just a cherry on top. I especially like (just like you pointed out), she always shone in a routine. Even the Russian Folk had me going “wow, she looks so natural in that piece!”

….I too am sad that she’s not going to be “Ameriker’s Favorite Dancer” for an entire year. Still, I think she’ll always be my favorite. 🙂

I’m so excited that Jeanine won. I was really pleased with the top 4 minus Evan. Jeanine definitely had the personality, and she’s so talented. Plus, she’s an incoming freshman at my uni — I hope she still goes!

As for the seasons.. first season, I HATED Blake’s personality. I was very pleased with the top 2 that season but felt the rest of the top 4 were OK. I didn’t watch much of season 2, but def. Travis!!! I really did like Sabra season 3 and actually voted for her… and Joshua? Oh boy. I didn’t really like how that ended up =/

I was so happy Jeanine won. She has such strong technique and control. With her friendly personality, she will be successful, not only in dance, but in her journalistic career. And I agree with Ash, it’s typical that some people, especially on fan sites, band together to bash the person who won if it wasn’t their favorite. Just like this author, I talked to a lot of people about last season and read a lot of forums. From those, I got the impression that many people wondered why on earth Mark, as nice as he was, was still in the top ten. Different sites, different opinions, I guess. It’s all a matter of taste in the end. Anyway, congratulations to Jeanine, a well deserved win.